Careful
by SapphireOceans
Summary: Song fic I have been planning for ages and have finally written!  Song: Careful by Paramore.  I do not own the song or Skulduggery Pleasant. Sadly.  Please read and reveiw!


**This was written whilst flying between Don Benito and Lisbon on my way to Faro in Portugal. Aeroplanes do wonders for creativity, but totally dry out contacts...:D. **

Careful

_Eyes settled down, a twisted up frown _

_Disguised as a smile, well,_

_You would have never known._

The headlights blazed through the night as the black Bentley drove along the deserted road. The driver stared into the darkness, lost in thought.

_I had it all, but not what I wanted,_

'_Cause hope for me was a place unchartered_

_And overgrown._

He'd never thought he'd been lonely before she came into his life. The thought had never even occurred to him. The Skeleton Detective didn't get lonely. He'd never been particularly happy, sure, but he'd been content. Sort of. Though a part of him, a small, almost unconscious part of him, granted, had always hoped for something...more.

_You make your way in,_

_I resist you just like this,_

Then she'd burst into his life. He'd resisted her at first, told himself it was only temporary- after all, she was only a mere child-but she'd ignored the dangers and his many warnings. He'd tried to protect her, but she was too stubborn.

_You can't tell me to feel,_

_The truth never set me free so I did it myself._

She made him feel truly...alive, for the first time in hundreds of years. Even though he wasn't actually...well, alive. He didn't know why- he usually kept a tight rein on his emotions. He didn't like to show his true feelings- them made him weak. Vulnerable.

_You can't be too careful anymore,_

_When all that is waiting for you_

_Won't come any closer; _

_You've got to reach a little more..._

But he was tired of restraining himself- when he was with her everything seemed brighter. The world seemed a better place; he felt that new experiences were waiting for him, just out of reach, and that if she were by his side, she could help him touch them...

_More..._

_More..._

_More, more..._

If he could just reach out a little further...

_Open your eyes like I opened mine,_

_It's only the real world,_

_A life you have never known._

Still, she needed to open her eyes and think seriously about the choices she was making; she deserved a normal life, in the real world, where her biggest problems were late homework and which boy to date, not this screwed up mess of magic and homicidal maniacs his life had become. She deserved so much better than that.

_Shifting your weight to throw of the pain,_

_You can ignore it,_

_But only for so long._

She had a choice- he hadn't. His normal life had ended when his wife and child had been killed in front of him. E tried not to think about it too much, in a desperate attempt to shut out the terrible twist in his gut (or where his gut would be if he wasn't a skeleton) that made him feel like he'd just been stabbed by a cold steel blade. The feeling he got every time his concentration slipped and he let himself remember.

_You look like I did,_

_You resist me just like this,_

He'd been just like her when he was younger- the excitement at the magic, the eager expression on his face. He didn't want her to become what he had- a wan sarcastic with a bitter view of the world. Like he'd been before he met her. But all words of caution and warning simply bounced off her as if off of an invisible shield.

_You can't tell me to heal,_

_And it hurts remembering how it felt to shut down._

People had tried so many times to tell her about him, how he had been irreparably scarred by his experiences. But she made him feel better inside, like the internal wounds he had sustained were slowly closing. People had tried to help with his pain before, tried to heal him, but she was the only one who had ever come close to succeeding- and she didn't even know she was doing it. She bought him back from the cold lifeless state which had been his existence since his world had been shattered; she took his mind off those dark days which it hurt too much to remember.

_You can't be too careful anymore,_

_When all that is waiting for you_

_Won't come any closer; _

_You've got to reach a little more..._

To his partners' eyes, the world was a brand new exciting place full of opportunity, beauty and magic. She thought that you could just throw caution to the wind, that you had to take a leap of faith; she didn't realise that sometimes there was no one there to catch you when you fell. And he really didn't want her to discover that the hard way. The way he had.

_More..._

_More..._

_More, more..._

Because there was more evil out there than she could ever realise, and he didn't want to expose her to that. But sometimes it was hard to remember that she was a child, and that she wasn't capable of some things.

_The truth never set me free,_

_The truth never set me free,_

_The truth never set me free,_

_The truth never set me free so I did it myself._

For so many years he hadn't need anyone. He'd done everything himself, alone, breaking all the rules and never having to worry about anyone else, never needing any company. Not when he had right on his side. Or so he hoped, anyway.

_You can't be too careful anymore,_

_When all that is waiting for you_

_Won't come any closer; _

_You've got to reach out,_

He steered the Bentley around a corner automatically. They'd faced so much together, that they'd become far more than just a team. She was his partner, his student, his best friend, and he'd rather die again that let anyone hurt her.

_You can't be too careful anymore,_

_When all that is waiting for you_

_Won't come any closer; _

_You've got to reach a little more..._

He stopped outside her house, and waited for her, tapping the steering wheel unconsciously until she pulled open the door and slid in next to him.

"So where we going?"

"An old lady's cat was stolen."

She looked at him, surprised. "Is that it?"

"Nope, the cat was actually murdered."

She raised an eyebrow. He smiled cheerily back at her. Her face broke into a grin, and he felt like his day had just been brightened up a couple of notches. They were together again, partners in crime. Well, crime-solving. Partners in trouble? That was probably too likely, actually...

_More..._

_More..._

_More, more..._

He put his foot down, and the car shot off.

**Ah heck, now we're going down...I think my stomach just went on holiday to my rib cage...are the wings supposed to make that noise? Oh, flip, that was a big bump... (Haha, this is my 32****nd**** flight, and I still freak out!) **

**Ah well, I hope the song fic made sense! I've been meaning to write this for a while...**

**See you soon guys, please review!**


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